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Sep 19, 2019taralei rated this title 4.5 out of 5 stars
" Who can fathom the human soul? Well, Ms. Atwood can. Her dystopian masterpiece was penned many decades ago, and her dire predictions of our future in North America have come to fruition in a world that is now ruled by a despot who encourages the basest and most ugly urges in humanity. Ms. Atwood has had over thirty years to see the creation of a war against women, a world in which women have little recourse and fewer options. The interplay of the three women's stories, their testaments to the regime are interconnected through their bloodlines, and the value of sisterhood and female solidarity. The feminine voice is outlined here, the book makes us examine what it means to be a mother, that bloodlines are not the important part of motherhood, it is the love that a woman and her child share that validates the relationship. The world they are inhabiting does not allow them to pursue knowledge, as reading is said to lead to disturbing thoughts of freedom. The explicit abuse of women in the modern age, the open warfare on female rights to their bodies, sexual abuse, violence towards women... it is a war, and one we are not winning. GIlead has to be deconstructed from within, and as Atwood points out, all regimes fall. In these testaments, we find the inevitable idea that religion and state must be kept separated, as the control of the religious right is at the core of the war on women. A patriarchal right will keep women dominated and without a voice, and unchecked, this marriage between religion and state will create a Gilead where the voices of women will be hushed. As Becka says., " You can love Gilead, or you can love God. You cannot love both".